1 Introduction引言

 

1.1 A brief introduction of Toni Morrison

 

As one of the most outstanding and important African American women writers, Toni Morrison is the first black woman writer who has won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.

 

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain Ohio on February 1931. In order to escape from the fetter of racism in the south and find better opportunities in the north, her parents moved to Ohio. Her father was a master of black folklore and ghost stories, and her mother was a singer in the choir. Both of them were proud of their own culture and image. Morrison heard many black folklore and songs throughout her childhood, which has a deep influence on her, making her believe that the black should have the same social status and achieve the same treatments as well as the white. After graduating from Howard University in 1953, she went to south and received her Master Degree of Arts from Cronell University in 1955. In 1957, she returned to Haward University to teach English. After giving birth to her second son, she moved to New York and began to her writing career. As a senior editor at Random House, she mainly writes novels about the black, especially black woman’s life.

 

From 1970 to 2003, Toni Morrison had published 8 novels. The Bluest Eye is her first novel, which was published in 1970. Although this novel was not achieved praise, but it made her enter into the field of black literature and fight for racial equality. Sula was published in 1974, which was nominated for the National Book Award and was a milestone in Toni Morrison’s fictional works. In 1977, her third novel Song of Solomon made her win the National Book Critics Cricle Award. Beloved is her most famous novel published in 1987 and she won the Pulitzer Prize. Morrison “has proven that African-American women writers no longer command only a black audience but can hold white readers’ interest and earn their respect while lessening their ignorance of the black race”(Robinson, 2001: 9).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

1.2 A brief introduction of The Bluest Eye

 

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s first novel, which was published in 1970. Besides, it is considered as one of the most important novels of Morrison. In this novel, the author emphatically portrays a little black girl, Pecole Breedlove and her miserable girlhood. Influenced by cultural and racial oppression, her father, Cholly always gets drunk and fights with her mother. Her mother, Pauline devotes herself to her white master’s family and gives the Fisher girl all her love and care. Because of Pauline’s indifference and silence, Pecola considers herself an ugly girl. After raped by her father, blamed and denied by her mother, Pecola‘s inner world is destroyed completely. In her eyes, only with white skin and blue eyes can she have qualification for achieving her mother’s love and care and become a beautiful girl. Rejected by her family and black community, she becomes mad and considers that she has already had a pair of blue eyes. Meanwhile, Morrison depicts another black mother, Grealdine, like Pauline, she hates her blackness and worships everything that connects with the white. Because of lack of maternal love and care, her son, Junior becomes a sadist. In addition, by describing Mrs. MacTeer’s self-affirmation and her daughters’ self-identification, Morrison tells the black that having their own culture and image black people can achieve same status and rights as well as the white have in American society.

 

The Bluest Eye shows many themes, for instance, dominant culture, unconventional motherhood, racial discrimination and so on. In fact, these themes are the reason of the black people’s miserable fate in American society. Under the oppression of white culture and racism, the black gradually give up their own culture, even hate black people. However, they are still not admitted by the white. Ruby Dee commented that “Toni Morrison has not really written a story, but a series of painfully accurate impression”; “she gives us a sense of some of some of the social elements of some of the people, black and white that contribute the erosion of innocence and beauty. To read the book, however, is to ache for remedy” (1970: 320).

 

1.3 A brief introduction of motherhood in Morrison’s novels

 

In general, “motherhood is preserving the life of the child, fostering the child’s growth, and shaping a child acceptable to his or her society” (Ruddick, 1995: 17). In other words, motherhood is a very important factor in the growth of younger generation. It means not only satisfy children’s material need that makes them growing vigorously, but also care for children’s spiritual need that helps them to overcome difficulties. Therefore, African Americans’ normal motherhood should be protecting the life of the child, resisting the cultural oppression under the white dominant world.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

For Morrison, African American motherhood is a very important aspect for their black children. In general, their behaviors and psychology decide their children’s life and characters. So motherhood is a central theme running through Morrison’s novels, such as: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. She emphatically depicts under the serious influence of dominant culture, slavery, racism and psychological forces, African American mothers deviate from their traditional and normal motherhood, thus having a bad effect on their children’s physiology and psychology. They are faced with different circumstances. Some of them would rather take extreme action for protecting their children from the fetter of slavery, yet some of them keep away from their native culture and indifferent to their children. However, all of them have a tragic lot. Besides, the younger generation is influenced by this tragedy. As Mary Helen Washington considered that “motherhood complicated and threatened by racism, is a special kind of motherhood” (Burrows, 2004: 129), which is the unconventional motherhood. Meanwhile, in Morrison’s novels, she also believes that developing normal motherhood is a necessary part on the road of the black’s self- identification and a source of power for their children.

 

From 20th century to now, many critics have been paid much attention to Morrison’s novels. Generally speaking, there are many books and studies touch on black motherhood from physical, psychological, family, social, cultural and racial aspects. From abroad, a book named Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason and Lee written by Eckard, Paula Gallant, analyzes motherhood from cultural aspects. In 2004, Andrea O’ Reilly wrote a book named Toni Morrison and Motherhood: a Politics of the Heart. It mainly analyzes how to educate children. At home, Wang Shouren and Wu Xinyun wrote a book named Gender; Pace; Culture; Toni Morrison and African American Literature of 21st Century. This book depicts the damage resulting from white dominant culture impacts on the black. Besides, Hu Jun’s A Study of the Identity Pursuit of African American in Toni Morrison’s Fiction talks about the black’s self-denial and self- hatred in the white world.

 

My thesis is intended to analyze the motherhood distorted by white dominant culture and racism in the black community. The significance is mainly to illustrate that black people can free themselves from the fetter of white dominant culture and racism by identifying their own culture and image, and to make readers pay more attention to black female’s living environment.

 

2 Analysis of Motherhood Distorted by White Dominant Culture and Racism

 

2.1 The description of the cultural and racial background

 

As a new nation of immigrants, there are many problems of ethnic minority in front of United States. African American problem is the most aculeate. After Civil War, the serfdom was abolished. As corporate winner, black people did not get due citizen rights equal to the white. They still live at the bottom rung of the social ladder. Moreover, white culture occupied dominant position throughout American history. In white people’s eyes, white culture is superior to black culture; everything white is beautiful and important. However, black culture isn’t worth to be mentioned in American society. They begin to force the black to accept their language, culture and the standards of beauty. Besides, the white’s discrimination is also infiltrated into films. Black people are depicted as dirty person, servants, even horse by the white in the film. Under such a situation, the black gradually accept their ugliness, give up their own image and culture and begin to pursue everything that connects with the white.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

After World WarⅡ, black people begin to realize the importance of citizen rights. Therefore, Civil Rights Movement is an unavoidable event. It improves the blacks living condition directly and makes them achieve equal position in many fields, such as: political, economic and educational. However, invisible discrimination still exists in American society. “Niggers” is still a synonym for African American. The black still live in an abyss of misery.

 

2.2 Pauline’s unconventional motherhood

 

When the blacks migrated from the south to the north, they were trapped into a dilemma. On one hand, white dominant culture and racial oppression had estranged them from their black culture and people. On the other hand, they failed to be admitted by the white, so they were in a free state. In this situation, the black females gradually believe that blackness is ugly and whiteness is beautiful. Pauline is just such a mother who makes her daughter believe that blue eyes and white skin is the best.

 

2.2.1 Pauline’s distorted life

 

“From the early part of her life up to the time, the reader is introduced to Pauline, she has worn a shroud of shame” (Wolf, 1990: 47). Pauline grows up in Alabama. In fact, Pauline’s deformed emotion is inherent. Although she lives in a large family, “she never feels at home anywhere, or that she belongs to anyplace” (Morrison, 1970: 111). In her eyes, her limping foot is a deficiency. Another physical defect is the loss of her front tooth. The injured foot gives her a sense of separateness. “The loss of her front tooth seems to ensure her total acceptance of her own ugliness and she let her physical appearance deteriorate” (Zhu Rongjie, 2004: 43). However, when Pauline falls in love with Cholly, “for the first time, Pauline feels that her bad foot was an assert” (Morrison, 1970: 90). In order to find better opportunities, after marriage they move to Ohio. Pauline feels “it was hard to get to know folks up there, and I missed my people, I weren’t used to so much white folks” (Morrison, 1970: 93). Therefore, Pauline turns to her husband for entertainment and consolation. At first, Cholly is still kind to her, but gradually he is tired of her dependence on him. Their relationship worsened quickly after the birth of their first son. Cholly begins to get drunk and fight with Pauline. Besides, they always have difficulty making ends meet. Afterwards, Pauline has to undertake all the family responsibilities as well as other black women. Gradually, she deviates from their native culture and accepts the white’s aesthetic standard.

 

In order to avoid poverty, Pauline indulges herself in the world of Hollywood movies. She begins to worship the white images on screen and admires their nice clothes, and like other black women, she imitates white women’s dressing up and life style although she is unable to change her black skin. However, “Pauline felt uncomfortable with the few black women she met. They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair. When she tried to make up her faces as they did, it came off rather badly. Their goading glances and private snickers at her way of talking” (Morrison, 1970: 91). Therefore, Pauline becomes likes buying new and fashionable cloth though her life is in serious straits. Eroded by white’s aesthetic standard, Pauline completely denies her own black image, family and black culture. In her mind, white is beautiful.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

There is another main reason for deprival of Pauline’s motherhood. When Pauline gives birth to Pecola in hospital. She suffers from the white doctor’s inhuman treatment. They are uncivilized and rude when Pauline takes a pelvic examination. The doctor also gives an absurd assert for Pauline’s birth. “These here women you do not have any trouble with. They deliver right away and with no pain, just like horses” (Morrison, 1970: 99). Meanwhile, compared with the genial talk and concern they give to the white women, the doctors do not talk with Pauline. At first, Pauline is unwilling to accept this treatment, so she moans louder in order to tell the doctors that black women have rights as well as the white women. Sadly, when Pecola is born, Pauline finds she is so different from what she thought. She hopes her baby will be like the white baby in movies. But Pecola has black skin. Finally, Pauline’s hope is destroyed. So Pecola suffers from her mother’s ignorance and maltreatment during her growing up.

 

2.2.2 The performance of Pauline’s unconventional motherhood

 

In Morrison’s novels, she often makes female’s body talk for their role. In The Bluest Eye, motherhood is always connecting with mother’s silence, which finally denied and destroyed their children. The white dominant culture not only distorts Pauline’s humanity, but also deprives her words. In this novel, Pauline’s language is mostly a short form of soliloquy. It is a reflection of her inner world.

 

When Pecola was born, Pauline ignores Pecola’s beauty, but regards her as “an ugly thing”. “Eyes all soft and wet. A cross between a puppy and a dying man. But I knew she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly” (Morrison, 1970: 102). So she is unwilling to take care of Pecola and speak to Pecola. Pauline is a mother of few words in Pecola’s memory. Afterwards, Pauline devotes all her efforts to her master’s white family—the Fishers, and gives the white little girl all her love because the white girl meets her standards. On the contrary, she fails to give her daughter normal maternal love and care. She almost forgets she is a black mother and gives up her own family. In her eye, she is just a white family’s servant. When she speaks to Pecola, her words are always ambiguous and stingy. When Pecola spills “blackish blueberries” on the floor of the white family’s kitchen, Pauline doesn’t show any care to her own daughter who is burned by the hot berries but pushes Pecola to the floor and blames her seriously, “crazy fool…my floor, mess…Look what you…work…Get on out…now that…crazy…my floor, my floor…my floor” (Morrison, 1970: 87). Although her words are incoherent, Pecola totally feels her mother’s anger. She then comforts the white little girl who doesn’t injure at all. In front of Pecola, when she speaks to the white Fisher child, her words is sweet and smooth, “the honey in her words complemented the sundown spilling on the lake” (Morrison, 1970: 109). In addition, she even refuses to admit that Pecola is her daughter when the white little girl asks her. Then she drives Pecola out of her master’s house. Pauline totally ignores Pecola’s feeling and need. Besides, she asks her children to call her “Mrs. Breedlove” instead of mother, but the white little girl can call her “Polly” directly. These behaviors cast a shadow over Pecola’s mind.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Another scene that reflects Pauline’s unconventional motherhood is in the Breedlove’s kitchen, Pecola is raped by her father because he is in a drunken fit. Surprisingly, Pauline is completely indifferent when she knows the fact, she didn’t give her daughter great comfort but denies the rape and blames her.

 

From these tragedies, readers can know that under the impact of cultural and racial oppression, Pauline is totally got lost in the dominant world and her behaviors “successfully” makes her cut the connection with her black family and the black world, and destroys her daughter’s inner world. She does not give any maternal love and care to her black daughter but makes her daughter believe that white skin and blue eyes is beautiful.

 

2.3 Geraldine’s unconventional motherhood

 

Different from Pauline, Geraldine is a light-skinned black woman, from a black middle-class family. However, she also concerns everything that has relations with the white, such as: clothes, image, manners, standards of aesthetic and so on. In college, like other black women, she is learning “how to get rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotions” (Morrison, 1970: 68). Meanwhile, what she learns is how to cut the connection with their African roots and niggers, and become a member of the white society.

 

Under the influence of white dominant culture and racism, Geraldine hates her own blackness, and looks down upon all the black people, especially those poor black people. When she “saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on her head, hair matted where the plaits had come undone, the muddy shoes with the wad of gum peeping out from between the cheap shoes, the soiled socks, one of which had been walked down into the heel on the show” she says: “get out”, “you nasty bitch” (Morrison, 1970: 75). Besides, she considers that black people are very dirty, so after married with a black man, Geraldine always hates to see her husband’s customs. She “even wipes the doorknob after her husband has touched it” (Morrison, 1970: 69). In addition, because Grealdine accepts white dominant culture and values completely, she just takes good care of her husband and son and satisfies their needs by the white-male standards. She is regarded “as sweet and plain as butter cake” (Morrison, 1970: 68). “While Walker redefines dominant definitions of beauty by making sugar signify a new set for values through Shug Hvery, the references to sugar in Morrison’s text signal that Grealdine contributes to the maintenance of a racial hegemony” (Emma Parker, 1998: 39). In fact, Geraldine only cares about their external image: clothes, food instead of their inner world.

 

She believes that only through devoting herself to pursuing white values can she is admitted as a member of the white world. However, she ignores her son, Junior’s psychology and mental need completely. Like Pauline, she is also one of the black mothers who lose their maternal love. When Junior was a baby, she asks him not to express his emotions no matter where he is. She “did not allow her baby, Junior, to cry” (Morrison, 1970: 68). Her behaviors impede her son to grow up healthily. Thus Junior cannot express his feeling effectively. Moreover, Gealdine never allows her son to play with other black boys because they have no qualification to be his friends. She often teaches her son “colored people are neat and quiet; nigger were dirty and loud” (Morrison, 1970: 67). Although she takes good care of her son’s life and need perfectly, she does “not talk to him, coo to him, or indulge him in kissing bouts” (Morrison, 1970: 68). Surprisingly, she gives the household cat all her love and attentions. She would rather cuddle the cat and talk to it than communicate with her son. In her eyes, this cat suits her standard: neat and quiet. Therefore, her son always feels very lonely.

 

As a black woman, Grealdine is defeated by the cultural and racial oppression. She already devotes herself to pursuing the white world. She hates her blackness and black people. She even forgets she is a black mother. It is her self-denial, indifference and unconventional motherhood that makes her son live in a distorted life. Both Pauline and Geraldine have responsibility for their children’s distorted life and psychology. They deny not only themselves but also their children.

 

3 The Effect of Unconventional Motherhood on Children

 

According to Toni Morrison, it is mothers who have responsibility to protect and educate their children, because they are the carriers of black traditional culture, especially in the white dominant world. Their language and behaviors will have a strong influence on their children’s physiology and psychology, and their motherhood is a source of power for black children to grow up healthily. Therefore, black female plays a more important role than male.

 

3.1 Pecola’s miserable girlhood

 

In The Bluest Eye, Pauline’s self-hatred, distorted humanity, taciturn and lost maternal love has led to her daughter, Pecola’s tragedy. Pecola is a direct victim not only of cultural and racial oppression but also of her mother’s unconventional motherhood. She is silent, invisible, and always pursuing maternal love and a kind of beauty that cannot be achieved throughout her life. Influenced by her mother, Pecola has already accepted the white standards of aesthetic and lost in the white dominant world. For Pecola, she regards herself as an ugly girl. Only when she has blue eyes can she get perfect image and become a member in the white society. What’s more important is that she can get her mother’s love and care. Therefore, she becomes mad in the end.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

For a child, mother plays an important role throughout his life. However, Pauline is absent from Pecola’s life. When Pecola begins the first menstruation, she “keeps whinnying, standing with her legs far apart” (Morrison, 1970: 27). It is her friends, Claudia and Frieda who comfort and teach her. At that time, mother Pauline devotes herself to the Fisher family and tries her best to take good care of the little white girl. Besides, when she sees her parents fighting each other, she wants to disappear, but she finds “only her tight, tight eyes were left. She could never get her eyes to disappear. They were everything. Everything was there, in them. All of those pictures, all of those faces” (Morrison, 1970: 45). Sometimes, she even puts her parents’ fight on her ugliness. She considers that if she were a white girl, her parents would love each other, and her mother would be love her just as she likes the Fisher’s white girl. It proves that Pecola expects her mother to love her. From her behavior, we can see Pecola has already accepted her mother’s view. She denies her black identity and believes that the blue eyes are the source of her happiness. The black girl has admitted that blackness is ugly and whiteness is beautiful. Eichelberger claims that “these assumptions about race and physical beauty remain intact as Pecola envisions a happier family, a better world” (Eichelberger, 1999: 82). In addition, when she saw her parents fighting, “they did not talk, groan, or curse during these beatings. There was only the muted sound of falling things” (Morrison, 1970: 43). So Pecola has a habit of keeping silent no matter what she meets. After her father raped her in the kitchen, she is just lying on the kitchen floor in a silent way. This tragedy also makes readers recall the Fisher’s kitchen. When Pecola spills “blackish blueberries” on the floor, Pauline pushes Pecola to the floor and beats her seriously. Then she shows her great concern to the white girl in front of Pecola. Pecola also finds that she has no right to call her mother “Polly”. In reality, raped by her father and blamed by her mother, Pecola’s inner world is completely destroyed. In order to achieve white skin and blue eyes, she even goes to Soaphead Church to seek help. Leon Wurmser said that “eye is the organ of shame par excellence” and “individual feels exposed and humiliated—looked at with contempt for being inferior, flawed, or dirty—and thus wants to hide or disappear” (Grewal, 1998: 10). Finally, this blind pursuit leads to her madness. She always talks to her friends that she has the bluest and most beautiful eyes from dawn to dusk. Indeed, what Pecola pursuit is not only blue eyes and white skin, but also her mother’s love and care. She wants her mother to teach her how to protect herself from damage, to teach her life knowledge, to love her like she treats the Fisher girl. Like Claudia said, Pecola’s tragedy is result from the oppression of American society to the black, especially black female.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

3.2 Junior’s violence

 

Like Pecola, since lack of maternal love, Junior becomes a violent boy. He was born in a “neat and quiet” family. His mother, Geraldine just takes good care of his life and need but never gives love to him. She would rather cuddle their household cat and talk to it than communicate with Junior. Besides, her mother would never allow him to play with niggers and to express his emotion any time. Under this environment, not only is he unable to communicate with others, but also his life and psyche are totally distorted. Therefore, Junior wants to be the king of the Mountains. Being a king, he can have chance to express his feeling and emotion, communicate with others and order others to do what he wants. What’s worse is that he enjoys watching her mother’s cat suffer from pain because he thinks that the cat deprives his love belonging to him.

 

Gradually, Junior begins to enjoy teasing girls and making them scream. If someone goes against his order, he will throw stones to them. In order to satisfy his desire and express his grievances, he decides to assert his violence on both Pecola and the cat when he sees Pecola in the playground. So he pretends to invite Pecola into his home. Then he throws her mother’s cat in Pecola’s face. Because of terrible fright, Pecola wants to leave, but Junior forces her to stay in the room. When Pecola is cuddling and fondling the cat like her mother, he is enraged completely. “Snatching the cat by one of its hind legs and beginning to swing it around his head in a circle” (Morrison, 1970: 91). Finally, the cat is beaten to death. When Geraldine comes home, Junior even tells her it is Pecola who has killed the cat.

 

Influenced by cultural and racial oppression, black women begin to accept the white culture and the white standards of beauty. So they hate their own culture and image, and hated their blackness. Their behaviors lead to their children’s silence, violence and unhealthy psychology.

 

4 The Development of Normal Motherhood

 

Due to white cultural oppression and the black’s own reason, a growing number of black people are losing their way in the white society. What’s worse, African American motherhood is distorted. Therefore, Morrison appeals to her fellow to develop normal African American motherhood. She believes that only when black women love their family, their native culture and image can they develop normal motherhood.

 

4.1 Love for black culture

 

For Toni Morrison, she believes that the black culture can encourage her fellow to have a positive life-style. As one of important element in black culture, the power of music is beyond neglect. Music often carries information about national history, spirit or customs. In the dominant society, the black sing songs to expand their power, to express their desire and to arouse their fellows’ consciousness. Besides, the black can vent their discontentment through the music. In The Bluest Eye, when the poverty and oppression make many black people abandon their culture, there are some black women who have the ability to hold their native culture, love their husbands or take good care of their children.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Mrs. MacTeer is one of such women. Under the oppression of dominant culture and racism, she still approves her traditional culture when many African American discard their black characters, As a mother of two black girls—Claudia and Frieda, she often sings black songs in front of them. When Claudia hears her mother’s songs, she feels that misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother’s voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet (Morrison, 1970: 18). Meanwhile, through the black songs, they also know some black folklore. Besides, Mrs. MacTeer often tells her daughters black traditional culture in order to make them believe that black culture is the best and effectively protect them from the damage of white dominant culture.

 

Readers have great admiration not only for Mrs. MacTeer, but also for the whore Poland, whose singing is a great comfort to Pecola, the helpless black girl. In Pecola’s eyes, Poland seldom speaks when she comes to the three whores’ house. She is “hummed mostly or chanted blue songs, of which she knew many” (Morrison, 1970: 45). For Pecola, Poland’s voice is as sweet as strawberry and she never know that there are so many pleasant songs in the world. From her singing, Pecola can get happiness and know many stories of the blues and the black. However, the songs and stories are only a temporary comfort to Pecola, rather than a permanent cure. In spite of this, as a African American, although Poland is a whore, she still doesn’t forget her root but also love for black culture all along.

 

4.2 Love for black image

 

As the narrator of The Bluest Eye, Claudia is a brave and happy girl, although she also suffers from the oppression of white standard and racism. While the majority of black people accept that blue eyes and white skin is the best, she still believes black image is beautiful. “We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses releases to her, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness” (Morrison, 1970: 73). When she receives a Christmas present—a white and blue-eyed doll from her parents, unlike other girl who regard the white doll as their sleeping companion, Claudia feels uncomfortable. She wants “to see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty” and to “examine it to see what it was that all the world said was lovable” (Morrison, 1970: 14). After destroying the white girl, Claudia is angry why people think the white doll is beautiful. Finally, she realizes that this is the performance of invisible white cultural oppression. In other words, the white attempt to use blue-eyed doll to erode the black’s mind and to force the black to accept white aesthetic standard. Therefore, she doesn’t allow this standard to control her life. When other students jeer at Pecola’s blackness and ugliness, Claudia protects her from hurting. In fact, she also protects their black image. When Pecola accepts white standard and dreams of having blue eyes, Claudia tells her blackness also beautiful. From Claudia’s narration, it is the oppression of white aesthetic standard that makes black people hate their own image and long for the blues eyes. In addition, Claudia is proud of her black image. It is her self-identity and self-confidence that makes she has a physically and psychologically healthy life.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Besides Claudia, the three whores also set a good example for the black under the influence of white aesthetic standard. Even though as whores, China, Poland and Marie are also proud of their black images. They always despised by common people because of their jobs, but they themselves don’t despise their images. Moreover, they believe it is useless catering to the white. Unlike other black people who were conquered by the white, they live a happy life. Therefore, they call themselves “sugar-coated whores” (Morrison, 1970: 43). Before being mad, Pecola likes to visit them, because only they would like to talk with her. Furthermore, she can get respect from them, rather than being ignored by her mother. Sadly, the temporary respect can’t help Pecola free from torment. These facts prove that it is normal motherhood that makes the children grow healthily.

 

5 Conclusion

 

Upon above parts of this thesis, we can know that after the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans’ life and social status are still oppressed by white dominant culture and racial discrimination. It is the white aesthetic standard that seriously distorts black female’s life and motherhood. Besides, it also damages the relationship between black female and their children. In The Bluest Eye, as the representatives of black low-class, Pauline is a black mother who devotes herself to the white. In order to be accepted by white society, she even cuts ties with her traditional culture. In the end, Pauline’s unconventional motherhood brings a huge damage to her daughter—Pecola’s physiology and psychology. At the same time, as the representatives of black middle-class, Geraldine tries her best to erase her blackness. It is her self-hatred and indifference that makes her son becomes a sadist. Professor Zhu claim that “it seems to be a vicious circle that the African American woman’s cultural dispossession, in more specific words, loss of culture bearing maternal love and nurturing abilities, will in turn bring about their children’s estrangement from black cultural heritage” (Zhu Rongjie, 2004: 220).

 

In short, Mrs. MacTeer’s maternal image represents Toni Morrison’s aspirations: black women play an important role in their children’s life. They have duty to transmit black traditional culture to next generation. Accepting white standard, they will fall into the abyss of suffering; holding their native culture and image, they can resist white standard and enjoy themselves.

 

References

 

[1] Burrows, Victoria. Whiteness and Trauma: the Mother-Daughter Knot in the Fiction of Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid and Toni Morrison [M]. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

 

[2] Dee, Ruby. “Review of The Bluest Eye” in New York Times Book Review [M]. New York: New Times Company, 1970.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

[3] Eichelberger, Julia. Prophets of Recognition: Ideology and the Individual in Novels by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow, and Eudora Welty [M]. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999.

 

[4] Gillan, Jennifer. Focusing on the Wrong Front: Historical Displacement, the Maginot Line, and The Bluest Eye [J]. African American Review, 2002, 36(2): 283-298.

 

[5] Grewal, Gurleen. Circles of Sorrow, Lines of Struggle: The Novels of Toni Morrison [M]. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.

 

[6] Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye [M]. London: Chatto and Windus, 1970.

 

[7] Parker, Emma. “Apple Pie” Ideology and the Politics of Appetite in the Novels of Toni Morrison in Contemporary Literature [M]. Wisconsin: the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, 1998.

 

[8] Robinson, Mary, and Kris Fulkerson. Cliffs Notes on Morrison’s Beloved [M]. New York: IDC Books Worldwide, Inc, 2001.

 

[9] Ruddick, Sara. Maternal Thinking [M]. USA: Beacon Press, 1995.

 

[10] Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth [M]. London: Chatto and Windus, 1990.

 

[11] Zhu Rongjie. Pain and Healing: A Study of Maternal Love in Toni Morrison’s Fiction from a Cultural Perspective [M]. Kai Feng: He Nan University Press, 2004.